ASK THE EXPERTS
LEGAL
Q My fallow deer stalking permission suffers from having an adjoining neighbour who targets the bucks with the best heads and leaves the does unculled. Can I make him manage the deer properly?
A David says: In England wild deer are ownerless. You do not own these fallow deer and nor does your neighbour. They are free to come and go as they please.
Assuming your neighbour has the right to kill deer on his land he is of course entitled to do just that. In so doing he makes the shot deer his property. When you shoot a deer you bring it into your possession in the same way. Should your neighbour shoot a deer that runs on to your ground and you then find it, it becomes yours.
Although your neighbour’s policy of shooting the best bucks may very well be a bad one, and understandably frustrating, you have no legal remedy. A wild deer comes on to his land and, by shooting it, he makes it his property. It is as simple as that.
Unless your
